First Year in Hostel......

After almost 17 years at Madurai, I had to shift to Chennai for my college education. It was a huge transition for me but I loved it, the main reason being FREEDOM. Moreover, I just wanted to get out of Madurai for a while(17 years in one place is a long time !!!). The CEG hostels (Block 2 room 39, if I'm right) welcomed me with their shabby cobweb-infested rooms and to make things worse, I had to share a room with three other fellow-cegians.However, very soon I realized that hostel was a great place to be and thanks to my roomies( I think they would have had a bad time with me around :-)...., and wingies( if there's a word like that, one row of 10 rooms is called a "wing").., hostel turned out to be a melting pot of intellectuals, gossip mongers and most importantly,great friends.

With several relatives in Chennai, I would visit one each weekend(wonder what a nuisance I must have been to them) during my first few months at the hostel. But as days passed by, I became more comfortable with my dingy hostel room and had a great time in the weekends, just chit-chatting with my friends. I should say that I turned over a new leaf in that one year I spent in the hostel. I grew more responsible, learnt to share, realized the value of money and of course, established strong bonds of friendship. Washing clothes used to be a big ordeal with all of us procastinating this chore to the weekends. Needless to say, my room used to look awful with clothes strewn all over. However, the worst part was the untolerable stench from the bathroom close by( I wonder if they ever washed it!!)



"Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink!!"- This was exactly what we encountered at the hostel in 2002. It was raining cats and dogs in Chennai and the entire university was flooded. The college was closed but we had no water to drink or bathe(he he, we did that sometimes!) in the hostels. And with all the step-motherly treatment that was generally meted out to the freshers, there have been times when there was not a drop of water at the loo!! I would be failing in my duty(he he,like this is a 'vote of thanks') if I dont mention our mess!. People found lizards in "ghee rice" and I personally discovered cute(?) writhing live worms in my breakfast plate of "rava kichdi" one morning. But all this was part of the parcel, and we managed to sail through such situations with difficulty at first, and then, with nonchalance, because there was no other go.



My happiness in the hostel was shortlived with my parents deciding to shift to chennai when I was entering my second year of engineering. It was difficult to leave the hostel suddenly, but the thought of amma's home-made food and spending time with my family slowly engulfed me and I was back at our rented apartment at West Mambalam just in time to embark on my third semester of computer science and engineering blah blah....